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Development of The Death of Life
The development of ''The Death of Life, an action-adventure video game, began after ''Mission: Impossible - IMF 2's release in November 2009. Sony Interactive Entertainment published The Death of Life on July 11, 2013 for the PlayStation 3 while Disney Interactive Studios, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment distributed the game. }} The three-year development, led by studio Nice Cat, was kept secret for the majority of development. In the game, players assume control of Blake Hearn and Quasimodo, tasked with escorting the young Misty and Kopa across a post-apocalyptic United States, in an attempt to find a way to shut down a machine that creates an infection to which Misty and Kopa are immune. Creative director Mathijs de Jonge became inspired to feature robots that infect as a main feature of the game after discovering the Sarcoscypha coccinea fungus. His story, set twenty years after the outbreak starts and much of civilization is destroyed, explored the possibility of the fungus infecting and killing humans. The team chose Matt Damon and Rumer Willis to portray Blake and Misty, respectively. Nathan Lane and Enrie Sabella reprised their roles as Timon and Pumbaa. Providing both the voice and motion capture of the characters, Damon and Willis assisted the team to develop the characters and help refine the story. Actors Chris O'Donnell, Angela Sarafyan, Jonah Bobo, and Pete L. J. Dickson were cast as Quasimodo, Pocahontas, Kopa, and the Iron Giant. The relationships between Blake, Misty, Timon and Pumbaa, Quasimodo, Pocahontas, Kopa and the Iron Giant was the central focus of the game, and all other elements were developed around it. Various other characters were influenced by the story progression, ultimately becoming completely different from the initial vision. Production Preliminary work on The Death of Life, under the codename "Project Disney/WB" or "DWB1", began after the release of Mission: Impossible - IMF 2 in November 2009. For the first time in the company's history, developer Nice Cat split into two teams to work on projects concurrently; while one team developed Mission: Impossible - IMF 3 (2011), the other began work on The Death of Life. In order to run the two teams smoothly, co-presidents Jeff George and Robert Garriott chose game director Chris Roberts and de Jonge to lead development on The Death of Life. Creative director Mathijs de Jonge originally came up with the concept of The Death of Life as a Disney/Warner Bros. crossover game while he was working at Guerrilla Games. However, Gurrilla founders Arthur Houtman and Martin de Ronde rejected the concept. Following the release of Killzone 2 in February 2009, Jonge left Guerrilla to work for Nice Cat. There, Jonge presented his ideal game to the company, which caught their attention. Story Much of the story was influenced from the 2009 films Terminator Salvation, and 9''. Character development Marketing Announcement A few weeks before the game's announcement, a billboard in Times Square teased the game, naming it a "PlayStation 3 exclusive you won't believe". Sony officially unveiled the game on December 10, 2011, at the Spike Video Game Awards. Shortly after the unveiling, Nice Cat president Brian Lindley revealed details about the game: }} In January 2013, Nice Cat announced that The Death of Life would miss its intended release date of June 14, 2013, delaying it until July 11, 2013 to allow for further polishing, and to avoid competing with Naughty Dog's own game The Last of Us. "Instead of cutting corners or compromising our vision, we came to the tough decision that the game deserved a few extra weeks to ensure every detail of The Death of Life was up to Nice Cat’s internal high standards," Nice Cat stated in a press release. Other marketing A demo for The Death of Life was included with all copies of God of War: Ascension, and was available from May 31, 2013 until the game's launch. To encourage pre-order sales, Nice Cat collaborated with several retail outlets to provide special edition versions of the game. The "Post-Pandemic Edition" includes a unique case packaging, a statue of Blake and Misty and unlock codes for additional content in the single-player and multiplayer modes. The "Blake Edition Edition" and "Misty Edition" include similar contents, but contain some features that are often differentiated by the characters. Notes and references Notes References }} Category:Development of specific video games Category:The Death of Life Category:Sony Interactive Entertainment